This is truly mind boggling... Amazon is the US' 2nd biggest employer and aims to have robots running 75% of its operations. What will happen to the people they employed? What will happen to the US economy as its consumer spending backbone takes this hit?

New: Skamania County has tied its previous search and rescue record with more than 2 months left in 2025. The costly rescues have compounded the county's fiscal crisis and pushed the sheriff to try to fine "reckless or negligent" recreationists who call for rescue. www.columbian.com/news/2025/oc...

The $31b Columbia River shipping industry is feeling the impacts of President Donald Trump’s effort to remake the U.S. economy to be less reliant on imports. The effects have been mixed for SW WA — leaving uneasiness in the place of the outright fear. www.columbian.com/news/2025/oc...

New: How do the fish health advisories that inform anglers of the dangers lurking in their catch start? With a small team of state researchers, and some 911 calls reporting aliens on the water, as it turns out: www.columbian.com/news/2025/oc...

1/2 "Never before has so much money been spent so rapidly on a technology that, for all its potential, remains largely unproven as an avenue for profit-making. The recent wave of deals and partnerships involving the two are escalating concerns that an increasingly.. www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

New: A ban on commercial huckleberry harvest in Gifford Pinchot this year was a success for conservation and Native nations' treaty-reserved rights. But with the ban set to expire before next harvest, will the Forest Service continue it? www.columbian.com/news/2025/oc...

New: Killing sea lions has become an increasingly popular solution to salmon extinction as agreements fall apart & Trump guts funding. The 2020 permit allowing the killings generated 22k+ comments, only ~200 in favor. That same permit received 1 comment this month. www.columbian.com/news/2025/se...

New: Last year I covered a 1.1-mile swim across the Columbia, and the characters that made it a cherished tradition. Along the way, I accidentally promised some of them that I'd join this year... last weekend, after a year of training, I did. www.columbian.com/news/2025/se...

New: A look at the political tightrope walk that keeps federal $ flowing into the Columbia River shipping system. The $ is key in keeping the system globally competitive at a time when intl businesses are rethinking trade relationships w/ the US amid growing costs. www.columbian.com/news/2025/au...

The bird flu virus that has beset dairy farms since early last year may be spreading through the air in so-called milking parlors and through contaminated wastewater (Gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/08/04/h...

New: Emergency response and tsunami modeling officials said this week's 8.8 quake off Russia's Pacific coast is a warning to the PNW about its own looming megaquakes — and the need for the region to prepare. www.columbian.com/news/2025/au...

SCOOP: The manifests for three legally contested deportation flights to El Salvador contain the names of dozens of people who have not been acknowledged in any way by the US government. Immigration experts following the case say they don't know where these people are www.404media.co/flight-manif...

New: Environmental group Save Our Wild Salmon released its first Columbia River Hot Water Report of the year Wednesday. It comes as water temperatures throughout the basin this year have *already* surpassed the key 68-degree threshold for salmon survival. www.columbian.com/news/2025/ju...

Seattle Times sharing the jetty story:

After 6 yrs, 32k boulders and $172M, the Army Corps' rebuild of the Columbia River South Jetty is almost done. The barrier allows ships carrying $31B in goods a year to pass the dangerous estuary where 2,000,000 gallons of water crash into the Pacific every second. www.columbian.com/news/2025/ju...

Mississippi River shippers got a 6 day tour of Columbia River shipping system last week. The tour stretched from Cape Disappointment to Lewiston, ID. It was aimed at building a united voice to advocate for US grain shippers' interests. www.columbian.com/news/2025/ju...

New: SW Washington steel importers are hurting after President Trump doubled import taxes to 50% earlier this month. Local importers and ports say the move will lead to higher consumer costs and layoffs in associated industries. Projections back that up. www.columbian.com/news/2025/ju...

If the GOP reconciliation bill passes, ICE gets through FY2029: - $45 billion for detention, on top of the current annual budget of $3.4 billion - $14.4 billion for transportation and removal, on top of the current annual budget of $750 million - $8 billion for hiring/retention - Billions more.

New from 404 Media: ICE is using a new facial recognition app to identify people, leaked emails show. Point camera at person, reveal their identity. It uses the CBP system that records peoples' faces as they enter or exit the U.S. Now, turned inwards to be used by ICE www.404media.co/ice-is-using...

Once logging and fishing-dependent Cathlamet has reinvented itself as a leisure and recreation-hub. But can the rising tide raise all boats? www.columbian.com/news/2025/ju...

NEW: President Trump today pulled out of a $1 billion Biden-era plan to restore salmon populations across the Columbia River Basin. The move is likely to restart a decadeslong legal battle over the harm the hydropower system inflicts upon endangered fish. www.columbian.com/news/2025/ju...

Earth will warm 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels in just two years, new data shows. Irreversible tipping points — like the melting of Arctic ice sheets or the collapse of coral reefs — are closer at hand than previously believed.

A leaked Trump administration budget proposal completely scraps a key Columbia River salmon recovery program as the president works to slash NOAA's funding. The program has invested $115 million across 342 projects currently underway within the basin. www.columbian.com/news/2025/ju...

The Trump administration is canceling a nearly $600-million contract to the drugmaker Moderna that was intended to develop a shot for humans against bird flu.

Diary of a Gazan family's descent toward starvation reut.rs/4jB7Dcd

Scoop: The Trump administration has cut tens of millions of dollars from a key Columbia Basin salmon-restoration program run by the Army Corps of Engineers. The 46% cut to the program's required work is a part of a ~$1.5b cut to the Corps' national FY25 budget. www.columbian.com/news/2025/ma...

NEW: President Trump’s trade war is now disrupting the ~$31 billion Columbia River trade system, costing SW WA businesses millions and likely leading to layoffs. Marine importers are already feeling the pain while exporters are bracing for impact this fall. www.columbian.com/news/2025/ma...

The effect of Israel’s total siege on Gaza has become catastrophic, doctors say. Shortages of food, water and medicine are prompting a surge of preventable illnesses, and deaths. nyti.ms/3GzOJV1

New projections show PNW power demand may double in next 20 years fueled by an explosion in the # of data centers, electric vehicles and electric appliances. But, with many proposed energy projects facing pushback for harms they cause, where will power come from? www.columbian.com/news/2025/ma...

There is very limited information moving in and out of Gaza. Medical workers are one group that gets a ground view. Some American doctors returning from Gaza compared notes and started to see a pattern.

For nearly 60 days, no food, fuel, medicine or other items has entered the Gaza Strip, blocked by Israel. Aid groups are running out of food to distribute. Markets are nearly bare. Palestinian families are left struggling to feed their children.

New: A move by federal water managers to pause a landmark environmental review of the Columbia River hydropower system has left stakeholders and tribes across the basin holding their breath. Routine move or the end of hopes for lower Snake River dam removal? www.columbian.com/news/2025/ap...

New #FactChecker --> Trump’s ‘tiny’ fish, a ‘giant faucet’ and ‘beautiful water flow’ wapo.st/42gTLOP

Solid analysis by @henrybrannan.bsky.social of the federal pause on the Columbia River system environmental review. 'Wait-and-see' is right. bit.ly/4jIS6XV

Trump’s attack on the Fed and his trade war have called into question US economic dominance and ushered in a sell-America trade

A fun one about a program BPA funds to mitigate dams' impacts on Columbia/Snake River salmon. Features a famous horticulturist, Wyoming cowboy and a guy just looking to get the yard work done so he can fish -- all looking to hook a piece of $1.7m in payouts. www.columbian.com/news/2025/ap...

Important story breaking down the local and state implications of the Trump admin's IRS move with simple precision. Must-read reporting from my Murrow News Fellowship colleague Monica Carrillo-Casas. www.spokesman.com/stories/2025...

Sotomayor, YESTERDAY: "The implication of the Government’s position is that not only noncitizens but also [US] citizens could be taken off the streets, forced onto planes, and confined to foreign prisons with no opportunity for redress if judicial review is denied unlawfully before removal."

Scoop: The PNW faces potential hydropower disruptions and lower Columbia flood risk management challenges if a key provision of a stopgap update to the US-Canada Columbia River Treaty expires amid diplomatic clashes. www.columbian.com/news/2025/ma...

Trump says ‘there are methods’ for seeking third term in White House

JUST IN: Supreme Court has turned down a request to take up Trump ally Steve Wynn's bid to upend the landmark NYT v. Sullivan press freedom precedent.

WaPo: Treasury and IRS officials predict a drop of more than 10% in tax receipts by the April 15 deadline vs. 2024. That would mean more than $500 billion in lost federal revenue. "For context, the U.S. government spent $825 billion on the Defense Department in fiscal 2024."

🟡 SCOOP: Microsoft chose not to exercise a nearly $12 billion option to buy more data-center capacity from CoreWeave, a sign that big tech companies are starting to right-size and tailor their AI budgets. www.semafor.com/article/03/2...

Forty-five years after Mount St. Helens’ eruption sent almost 90 billion cubic feet of debris into the upper Toutle Valley, millions of tons of sediment still pour into the Cowlitz River each year. And that flow is causing costly problems for towns along the way. columbian.com/news/2025/ma...

A real mystery why so many people are becoming homeless.

AP Exclusive: Trump administration workforce cuts at the federal agencies that oversee the nation's dams are jeopardizing their ability to provide reliable electricity, provide water for irrigation and control flooding, workers and dam-safety experts warn. apnews.com/article/dams...

Our tips truck has hit the road. This week, the Education Dept. announced it would fire about 1,300 workers. If you were affected, we'll be near the Education Dept. building, ready to meet folks where they are. You can also reach out via Signal at 917-512-0201 or go to propublica.org/tips.

Scoop: As the Trump admin partly reverses course on firing federal probationary workers, it turns out that many in the PNW who were set to be cut have not actually been cut. Sarah Wolf and I break down where things stand regionally at a handful of agencies: www.columbian.com/news/2025/ma...

Bar pilots who help ships navigate the rough waters between the Columbia River and Pacific Ocean told OPB yesterday they're already seeing effects from tariffs.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday imposed taxes on imported goods from major trading partners Canada, Mexico and China — and that could send shockwaves through Oregon’s economy.